


An Unasked Question

by tigs



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: F/M, M/M, Not!Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-18
Updated: 2012-06-18
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigs/pseuds/tigs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Taylor had read what Whits was writing, he would have seen a text to Gags: <i>breakingnews: apparently not a 3some wth.</i></p>
<p>For the next half hour, Gags bombards Whits with texts featuring shocked-face emoticons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unasked Question

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this as a happy thought plot summary, except the story just kept fleshing itself out. (I still don't know how six months of reading hockey slash led to my first attempt at writing anything being Taylor Hall/OFC, but... there you go.) 
> 
> Many thanks to dine and amy13 for the betas!

Taylor's pretty sure that he knew what was coming before Ebs and Nuge did. Because, okay, he might not be the sharpest blade on the ice, but he can occasionally be observant. And he likes to think that he knows his friends. 

So he actually notices that Nuge's smiles are just a little bit brighter when they're directed at Ebs. That his eyes linger a little bit longer when Ebs isn't looking, but drop a little too quickly when Ebs is.

And then there's the way that Ebs starts out their video game marathons farther away from Nuge than he used to, but ends up closer; how he's become a little bit more self conscious in Nuge's company. How he's stopped being the one to invite Nuge over all the time, but he always seconds Taylor's invitation with just a little too much enthusiasm when Nuge looks over at him, as if asking if it's okay. 

And then Ebs will blush. 

And Nuge will blush. 

And Taylor will mentally roll his eyes and outwardly pretend that there's nothing awkward going on, at all, for real.

And for awhile, because Taylor is a fucking _awesome_ friend, and he also thinks that they need to take their heads out of their asses and, you know, man up and _do_ something about all of the unresolved sexual tension that is practically sparking off the both of them, he picks up the slack. He makes sure to include Ryan in almost everything they do (except for when they need a roommate night), and he decides that he really prefers the end of the couch more than the middle, so that they have to sit next to each other during movies or video game sessions, and he gives them plenty of time by themselves while he, oh, goes in the kitchen to get drinks, or remembers he was supposed to call his mom, or pretends to pass out like a wuss from having too much fun or some shit like that.

But just when he thinks that he's going to scream and/or make Cabbie help him lure them into a room and then lock them in together until they admit their undying love, he comes back into the living room one night with three bowls of KD and finds Ryan pushing Ebs down onto the couch, kissing him, and he says, "Oh, fucking finally."

*

(He's not the only one to say it. When they arrive at practice the next day, all three of them look so smug and self-satisfied that Jonesy and Whits look at each other and breathe a sigh of relief and that, you know, may be how the whole _threesome 4eva!_ rumor gets started. 

Or confirmed. 

Or, you know. Whatever.)

*

At first, it's really fucking awesome, okay? Because Ebs is totally grinning more than Taylor's, like, ever seen him grin, and Nuge is pretty much just a big floppy puppy, and so what if, when he leaves them alone together for longer than 30 seconds nowadays, he usually comes back into the room to find one of them with their hand up the other's shirt, tongue down the other’s throat? He's just really happy for them.

But a few weeks into this new world order, he flops down on the couch, says, "Okay, so what's the plan for tonight?" and Ebs looks at Nuge and Nuge looks at Ebs, but Jordan's the one to say, "Actually, we're, um, going out to dinner?" And Taylor is this close to saying, _‘Great! Where?’_ when his brain manages to interpret the awkward looks that Ebs and Nuge are giving him, and he realizes, hey, okay, date night.

He nods and grins and says, "Well you two kids have fun, you know? Don't stay out too late since it's a school night and all..." Jordan slaps him on the back of the head, and then the two of them are gone, leaving Taylor on the couch, all alone.

And that's the point, maybe, that it starts to get a little awkward.

*

Not, like, _super_ awkward, though, because after Date Night (Taylor mentally capitalizes the words whenever he thinks them), they go for another few weeks before they make plans without him. And it's not like he and Ebs don't go see a movie on a Saturday afternoon without Ryan, or like he and Nuge don't go get ice cream that one day after practice, when Ebs is going over to hang out at Whits' house. Or--

But it still feels different when he watches Ryan and Jordan walk out the door without him, Ryan's hand in the small of Jordan's back. Or when Ebs leaves to go pick Ryan up at the Jones'. 

And Taylor will never, ever, ever, ever admit this out loud (he barely admits it to himself, very quietly in the back of his brain), but it maybe makes him feel a little bit lonely.

*

So, the next time Ebs and Nuge schedule couple time, Taylor calls up Whits and says, "You, me, bar hopping, yeah?" and Whits agrees.

When they get to the bar, Whits looks a little confused. "Where are your better halves?" he asks. "Or should I say, better thirds?"

"Date night," Taylor says, without any bitterness at all. Because he's not bitter. If he's lonely, it's his problem.

"...without you?" Whits asks, and Taylor rolls his eyes, and orders a beer, and completely misinterprets the look of shock on Whits' face, because he says, "Sometimes they do like to have couple time, without the third wheel around, you know? Shocking, but true."

Whits orders something harder than a beer, and starts texting someone on his phone, while Taylor scopes out a table.

*

(If Taylor had read what Whits was writing, he would have seen a text to Gags: _breakingnews: apparently not a3some wth._

For the next half hour, Gags bombards Whits with texts featuring shocked-face emoticons.)

*

So, it becomes the new routine. 

Every week or two, when Ebs and Nuge start making googly eyes at one another, Taylor will grab a teammate (usually Whits or Gags), or one of the guys in the next condo over, and they'll go out to the bars. 

He'll dance, he'll drink, he'll have a good time, and he'll get all of his lonely feelings out of his system, so if he encounters Nuge in the kitchen the next morning, dressed only in sweats, he'll be able to smile warmly as he tell him tales of drunken debauchery from the night before, which it's too bad that Nuge is too old and married now to enjoy.

*

During the fifth month of Ebs and Nuge’s run of Happy Couple Theatre, Taylor’s out with both Whits and Gags, and he’s ordering a beer at the bar, when he looks to his left and sees a girl looking back at him.

This is not uncommon, and because Taylor likes to be a good ambassador for the Oilers, he smiles and says, “How’s it going?”

The girl grins, says, “Good?” Then, visibly steeling herself, she sticks out her hand and says, “Hi, I’m Becca.”

“Taylor,” Taylor says, shaking her hand. He expects her to say, ‘oh, I know,’ or to tell him that she’s been to every game for the last two years, that she’s his _biggest fan_ or something like that. He doesn’t see even a flicker of recognition in her eyes. 

He thinks, huh, and then, on a whim, says, “Can I buy you a drink?”

One drink turns into two, which turns into three when they make their way back to the table where Whits and Gags have been holding court all night, which turns into all three of them trying to explain the rules of hockey using napkins, coasters, salt shakers, and tooth picks. Because Becca is originally from Kansas, where hockey is not something you’re born knowing how to play. 

Taylor waits three days before he calls her, then sees her again three days in a row, and talks to her four times during their six day road trip. 

Midway through their flight home, Jordan says, “So when do we get to meet her?” and suddenly, Taylor wants nothing more than to introduce her to his friends. So, the next night, the four of them go out to dinner, and ten minutes in, Ebs and Nuge have stopped giving her suspicious looks, and instead are telling embarrassing Taylor stories, so Taylor thinks that they’re going to get along just fine.

During the latter third of the season, Becca starts coming to their games, joining the other wives and girlfriends in the VIP boxes. Taylor notices a few glances from his teammates, hears his name whispered a few times, hears Whits say, “I _told_ you that Hallsy wasn’t part of—“ to another one of their teammates in a hushed voice, but hey, it happens. They’re a tight knit group, where most times, the words ‘nobody else’s business’ don’t seem to exist.

*

So, life is good.

But Taylor maybe doesn’t figure out exactly how good it is until after the season’s over for the year. Until one night when the four of them are all crammed onto the couch playing _Call of Duty_ , and Taylor is listening to Becca hold her own during the mandatory chirping sessions. Until, when they take a break, he hears Becca and Ryan planning a trip to the South Gate Apple store (a trip which Taylor and Ebs are not invited on, okay?). Until Taylor looks over at Ebs and grins smugly enough that Ebs has to elbow him. Which devolves into a wrestling match. Which ends when they hear Becca and Ryan golf clapping, and look up to see them holding sheets of papers with ‘5.5’ and ‘8’ written on them respectively. 

“The enthusiasm was there,” Nuge says, “but the style was somewhat lacking.”

Which means that Nuge and Becca get tackled (gently) too.

*

So, that’s the end.

(Except: 

In the Fall, Whits sees one of the rookies staring at where Hallsy, Ebs, and Nuge are joking around in front of their lockers, and when the rookie sees him looking, he says, “Seriously, there’s nothing going on there?”

“Nothing,” Whits says. 

“Unless,” Gags says, coming out of nowhere, “the correct answer to the unasked question is actually that they’re having a foursome.”

For a moment, Whits wants to bang his head against the top shelf of his locker, because seriously? Seriously? But then he looks over at where Hallsy is giving Nuge a piggyback ride, and thinks, _huh_. Then, _no way_. Then, _maybe?_

And that would be about the time that the _foursome 4eva!_ rumor gets started.)

(Except:

This time, Taylor gets wind of the rumor, mostly due to Ebs and Nuge getting wind of the rumor, which leads to both of them curling up against Taylor's sides on the locker room benches, looking up at him with doe eyes, and calling him 'sugar lump' and 'snookykins'.

Which Taylor gamely plays along with, until someone mentions it in front of Becca, and then, right there, that moment, he's had enough. Which leads to him standing up in the locker room and saying, "Um, just so you know? I'm really pretty straight. And these two are really pretty married."

"Yeah they are," Whits says.

And that is pretty much the end of it.)

(Except:

Becca has a much better sense of humor than Taylor ever had the right to expect, because she actually doesn't care. She thinks its _funny._

Which is why when she's out with the guys (just their closest friends and teammates, not everyone), she'll kiss Ebs on the cheek and sit on Nuge's lap, and call them all 'her boys'. 

And one night, when she's fallen asleep while the rest of them are watching the Kings-Ranger's game, Taylor looks down to see her head in his lap, her feet in Nuge's, with Ebs sitting on the floor in front of her, his head balanced on her knees, Ryan's hand on his shoulder.

He can maybe see how the rest of their team would be confused.

And you know what? 

He's pretty much okay with that.)


End file.
